comScore to supplement page view measurement with “visits”

comScore tweaks its web metrics system, announcing today that the company will …

Are page views on their way out, and "visits" on their way in? comScore introduced a new web metric this week that the company hopes will supplement its other metric data and meet the growing demands of Web 2.0. Visits are defined by the company as "the number of times a unique person accesses content within a Web entity with breaks between access of at least 30 minutes." They are meant to provide webmasters, site administrators, and advertisers with more accurate usage data in the wake of public criticism about inaccurate traffic reporting—not just from comScore, but from many of its competitors as well.

The controversy stems from a number of problems with comScore's metric model, which focused mostly on page views and "unique" visitor numbers. As an example, comScore announced that MySpace was the top site for December in terms of page views. But MySpace makes use of very few Web 2.0 technologies—namely AJAX, which is often used to pull and display new data to the user without requiring a page refresh—forcing users to load many, many pages in order to accomplish simple tasks. MySpace's massive pageview numbers did not accurately show how engaging the site was in comparison to other, less-bandwidth-intensive sites. This put those other sites at a serious disadvantage in the eyes of advertisers, which typically pay for ad space based on pageview numbers.

Essentially, focusing on page views punishes sites that use cutting-edge web technologies—a practice that could keep some sites from utilizing new technologies. comScore was aware of these complaints, however, and announced its plans to develop this new metric late last year. "As technologies like AJAX change the Internet landscape, certain measures of engagement, such as page views, are diminishing in significance for many Web properties," said comScore executive VP Jack Flanagan in a statement.

Former comScore CEO Peter Daboll wrote in a blog post that "With 'visits,' we get an added layer of data that, combined with reach (the number of users) and engagement (how long they stay), yields a much more comprehensive and meaningful portrait of people’s interactions and activities online." He pointed out that multiple visits a day could viewed as more valuable than one long visit, "because that user is choosing to come back again and again."

Using "visits" instead of page views, comScore's February numbers have Facebook ahead of MySpace with 23.6 visits per visitor vs. 16.9 visits per visitor. Unique visitor numbers tell a different story, putting Facebook at number 36 and MySpace in the sixth position.

The new system is not without some of the same old problems, however. comScore still collects its data from voluntary participation in web usage tracking, which does not take into consideration that certain audiences don't traditionally opt-into that sort of tracking. This, in turn, can hurt numbers for sites that such an audience might frequent regularly. Despite the possible shortcomings, the visits metric may push advertisers to view traffic measurements differently, relegating page views to a secondary role.